one thirty am in moscow these iraqi headlines a u.n. dive peace plan for syria on the rocks just ahead of the ceasefire deadline syrian rebels refuse the regime's demands for gallantries they'll lay down arms before damascus recalls its own troops. all of egypt's presidential hopefuls have submitted applications ahead of the first round of the vote next month several candidates hoping to fill the shoes of hosni mubarak mostly from power more than a year ago. moscow vows to secure the return of victor saying his case is

politically motivated this afternoon u.s. judge sentenced the russian businessman to twenty five years behind bars for conspiring to kill americans. up next our special report on the thomas miller el affair telling the story of a man whose death penalty was overturned after he spent half his life in jail stay with us. huntsville texas. the man who we are coming to see at the prison of women should have been dead a long time ago he was to be executed by lethal injection. a man sentenced to capital punishment more than twenty years ago for a crime which he has always denied. but. i get.

rid of a. very of thanks. time has flown by never did we think we would see him alive again. i. think. they were. one thousand years after our first encounter so many questions are left unanswered how did he stay alive has he changed will we recognise each other. hello to us last year how are you this is him thomas miller. thank

you. thomas and his amazing smile unchanged after so many years on death row the meeting is monitored closely next to us a warden and the man responsible for media in the prison we are being listened to. and are warned we are given precisely one hour to interview thomas our time is short and this. business isn't. so nice and be. quite a blessing in comparison to the situation that we're faced with. for at least twenty years how did you put the fourteen. years. sometime we sit and took the plate back and to figure out exactly how the of that we persevered. in light of the tremendous in motion the

psychological pressure that goes along with. such an extent. how can one keep it together for twenty years while waiting for his execution thomas miller was thirty four when he ended up in prison is now sixty one. his life should have ended here in a death row cemetery much like more than four hundred other people over the past twenty years in texas. when we met him one thousand years ago he said that he only thought about one thing. the day of his death. the minute he would be executed. is a little. bit of the world to me do you want to work this

. or that is. going to feel a little a good way to. give you a straight your basis for this group to which you were last seen would you go along with this go away if you want to. how is he survived since one thousand nine hundred ninety four. it was with these words that thomas miller expressed his fear of execution and also all the questions about his case nineteen years he waited on death row nineteen years claiming his innocence. or see you all right because you know more than mr he will be here. right where you're going to scream through the shrill cry. you know quesnel because this is you know. all right that was considered a good segue to

a list of things you know the city of the record where you are and always difference that it was. a black man accused of killing a white man. typical for texas. governor. during that month of one thousand nine hundred four thomas miller was on the eve of his execution over it with a growth you were saying earlier before your. guy. we were not to see each other again. and error. what was the incident that landed thomas miller on death row.

it was an enigmatic and complex case for which we need to go twenty six years back in time. our investigation first leads us to the newspaper archives of the dallas library. a crime among many others but this one went far deeper. fake police reports manipulation and the supreme power of a g disagree system in social discrimination. a merciless machine that hides its actions but which the miller case will trouble. little is known about what thomas miller is accused of in the middle of the night

criminals broke into a holiday inn on the outskirts of dallas they were after the cash register the hold up became a disaster. a young man died from numerous gunshot wounds he was the hotel receptionist. but what exactly happened on the night of november sixteenth one thousand nine hundred five one man may have an answer to this key question richard rayner is not just a detective a maverick. he also specializes in the counter investigations of death sentence cases it is thanks to him that innocent end mates were freed after many years on death row. prison oh gosh i think they spent the better part of eleven years. right now they're free they're free everything they did was wrong but there they go they didn't have any

repairs inpatient at all when you know what. letters here or prosecutors there are police officers. going to. problem is nobody hears very much of the truth. for justice they want to win you know they want to win this no matter what but this case it was incredible i made copies of every statement given by the. by the policeman. because certainly they had too many months where necessary to cambridge church trust and now he is willing to show his work on the miller case and that name is very familiar. these or the convictions and this is the bank robbery do you suppose we did. this is what all the witnesses are going to testify for you you have all of that for you is this unique evidence enabled richard to

form his own opinion. one that undermines the official version. well to argue that thomas was or was not there that's debatable but to actually come up with who did the shooting we don't you know i can say without a doubt there is questions here you know who actually did the shooting. there were five people last night four man and a woman armed and parks near the hotel according to the police report it was about two am when the group entered the hotel went to the reception desk and asked the two employees for the cast register. hotel clark douglas walker refused to comply he was shot dead at the age of twenty five. as young colleague wounded is the only witness of the crime thomas miller is pointing to as being the murderer of the

young receptionist based soley on his testimony. richard is not satisfied with his official version at all only witness that you was in you have it here you know you this is irrefutable yeah this is you know he he clearly tells them that he can't identify he didn't see anyone he said i'm too tired i didn't see them. and the second time they show him a lineup you can't be absolutely sure. in then towards the end. he describes the other guy and then he describes thomas in your when you have something like that. you know when you know. this story of

the self contradicting president and only witness paul there to richard graner he now wants to know about the arrest. think we're ok. five days after the crime it is in this quiet houston suburb that the police arrested thomas miller. this is the street where the shooting took place. actually the police were already waiting for thomas. at night when miller drove his car down a dead end the police ambushed him but they arrested and those plans gunfire broke out. it is in front of this house that the shooting took place. this is ninety eight to fifty one. when he saw the police thomas miller

tried to escape. to try to get away through here. he was severely wounded by several gunshots we just got the call started running. and was shot. we do smoke and moves like most parents and then hurt. somebody how the same you see of them is going to make it clear if you'd be a kid. actually three i told thomas that it certainly looked to me like he was supposed to but you know and that's the end of the story. but thomas did know that he didn't expect to be. to be stabbed in the back by his friend. in fact

thomas miller was denounced by his friend john hicks he confessed to the robbery but associated miller with the murder of the young will tell clark. when you have a lot of people involved in a crime those that come to the prosecutor first and say i'll cooperate but i don't want to be charged with a couple murder i don't want to go broke i will help you here's your shooter from the outset thomas miller tonight any involvement in the crime in the end john hicks only served a few years in prison while miller was sentenced to death in this case you have witnesses that you have a witness a survivor this is a cane identify and you have somebody else that is saved my life and i'll tell you that thomas did it. when you have doubts. both the

investigation and the arrest still raise many questions with the police there is no doubt that thomas miller is guilty his punishment must be deaths in march of one nine hundred eighty six in dallas he was sentenced to capital punishment by an almost all white jury. the judge was bill hill no one for his discrimination against black people. one young lady wants to know everything about this twenty year old trial. is thomas miller's daughter was just a child when he was sentenced. this is the first time she has returned to the hotel where her father was almost dying after his arrest. was only seven years old. and when i went into the role my mom was she was about to call my here and she was

like do you know who that was. and she said that was your dad and at the time they were. gunned down by the police department and i became really really sad and i was crying because i didn't want to go to school at that time. for years she didn't know anything about the case as her family kept her away from the start story. to understand she asked us to show her the documents we have along with her husband bruce she hopes to find some. you seen. these are just. chris people of this shooting.

he says he believes. to be. that he believes to be the truth. the first time. i was fifteen at the time he was. still need. our. visit like you know. you want to know what have i. was i doing. all the. time. how did you feel was the state's basic decision i would get a letter your dad is due to be executed next week we all have to go down there nobody's business but two days straight it's like when your boy drops. in list in a cinema. it's hard. to see them in. the bed is a very scary moment and you see no you can lose one of your parents within

a manner of me it's. the first. traumatized. about three days to write a letter to our daughter. in our life. you know you're going to write a letter this just write. we sit back and we start to write it up so that. you know it was. you know. this is the first appearance of thomas after numerous years of isolation shot by a spanish television crew in one thousand nine hundred ninety. s. it was forty. eight years of. robbery

and murder there are more than four hundred inmates alone. in a four square metres a misstep through their many black people many hispanic people many people without lawyers they have nothing else to do but wait the more time goes by the more they drown in solitude time is never ending but death comes closer by the minute in the year one thousand one thousand nine thomas is exhausted from waiting. a few execution a. place to sleep. is going to be up to you about it. give you execution date. kit hope it would be. waiting. a nightmare. believe me. just want to try execution date for anybody to go through my life.

i security prison poland's case is found in the middle of the texan countryside. this death row has the highest number of executions in the us an inmate waits for an average of ten years before being executed. for a long time french activist sandrine no shortage has been alongside thomas. miller fighting against the death penalty and the horrors of waiting on death row on the shore of what we are on the road between parlance the prison where he's a guest for and has a city where the it's a question room is zero down here is the last throes of course an advanced death it is their last chance to look outside and see nature and trees rather and their last chance to smell and feel or because they've been

a solitary confinement for so long as are opened their lives of us. as i remember a man sentenced to death was said that as each breath he took a long the road to death he heard he's heard it louder and louder on this doubt about the effects it was going to personally exposing. thomas miller has been down this path many times. we just start crying you're in the we're so glad you see what i'm doing you know don't members losing my house. or into. february july i'm a vendor of ninety four may august and october of ninety five january april and july ninety six february two thousand and two every day just another delay for miller death leaves ten times and then returns income us this case it's completely in human and and believe it or to has to go through this ten times in his life it

is a never ending torture and we haunted him until he said as a. delaying the execution that will take place behind these walls can happen the night before or even in the final few minutes. of bureaucratic error one last appeal by the lawyer or the mobilization of a few people may be enough to prevent this terrible end while the wardens and witnesses arrive at wal. the one who is to be executed is no longer master of the passage of time only one man stays close to him so out of his last hours. that i was a chaplain and i was with a ninety five i was to be with them to listen to them to help them with their last letters to make telephone calls for them to ask already and their

visitors their family or lawyers or anybody else and to be there when they needed something bigger schmock whatever that would make them and i want to use were happy but that was what i wanted to. i was i stayed right with him all day. telephones in the room writing for one from the governor one from the attorney general and when those on the telephone rang i knew that which assigned to go and i'd say it's time to go. there are two. and i would lead them into this to the gas chamber stand right next to. most them

want me to hold their hands and i would hold that hand until they got to the poker room where the execution if i had to put a bandage to and then i would stand right five inches from their right way and that was my i put my hand all the way you know was. coming straight you know after they were hit. like we came we'd been maybe you know but it was like i want to thirty minutes of something like that right. you know this. is the point that we reached where is that we were happy you know to get it over with you know because we would have an opportunity to do. some fun to get out of this place you know we think it's really it's horrible to watch somebody

that doesn't know what they're thinking as. he was one of the few that. wrote to get prayer he was very cooperative and i think that he understood when the when he was there it was. not anti racist it can be you know more than thirty percent of the people who are executed tapes that are not light. exhausted and uphold after sixteen years in the death of a pastor pickett left the prison administration and has chosen to fight it from the outside in a book he speaks of the atrocity of the system the racism and the execution of innocents because of these radical opinions has been subject to threats and tax inquiries. the state of texas is not one to tolerate criticism of its

ways and even if these executions do not help lower the crime rate these cowboys care for their reputation. even proudly promote the death penalty in a museum dedicated to it in huntsville that prison is very high if. nothing is missing from that motional movie describing life in prisons and the forced work of the inmates you may also specify that there is no air conditioning no intimacy in the cells no tourists are reassured security is at its highest level and the number of prosecutions is increasing. my goodness if people come from far away to see it stole another chair nicknamed old sparky it was discontinued in one thousand nine hundred sixty four lethal injection has replaced it. oh yeah that's right you're going to variously and. how does things that fit.

for shivering instant the tourist can even play prisoner. so i say i'm not real prisoner that it. question was that so much about taxpayers' money madrid's a shiny new crap people at various a time finally come when we should value all were paid of measurement wealthy industries such as g.d.p. and other government. you get off sometimes you see a story and it seems so for life you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harvey welcome to the big picture.

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